What to charge / Plasterers · Checked 16 October 2026
What to charge as a plasterer in 2026
Checkatrade’s April 2026 table puts a plasterer at £300 a day or £37.50 an hour. Most plastering is priced by the area, though: Fantastic Services gives £15 to £25 a m² to skim a sound wall and £450 to £850 to plaster a single room. Price guides disagree a lot on whole rooms, so the figures below sit side by side, with ceilings, repairs, what the business costs to run and a calculator for your own rate.
Rates
Typical plasterer rates in the UK
| Rate | Typical range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| A day, Checkatrade 2026 table | £300 [1][2] | Last updated April 2026. Its room plastering guide gives the same £300 a day for labour. |
| An hour, Checkatrade 2026 table | £37.50 [1] | Checkatrade does not say whether VAT is included. |
| A m² to skim an existing wall | £15 to £25 [3][1] | Fantastic Services, 2026. £18 to £32 in London and the South East. Checkatrade gives £24 a m². |
| A m² to re-plaster or board and skim | £25 to £45 [3] | Fantastic Services. £30 to £58 in London and the South East. |
| A m² to skim a ceiling | £20 to £35 [3] | Fantastic Services. Ceilings cost more than walls because the work is overhead. |
| An hour, HaMuch average | £25 [4] | From £15 to £50 depending on area. Its average day rate is £170, from £120 to £400. |
| Minimum charge for a small job | £120 to £150 [3] | Fantastic Services, to cover setting up, mixing and cleaning. |
Where you work changes the rate
- London and the South East, Fantastic Services: roughly 20 to 30% above the North of England, Wales and Scotland. A single room is £550 to £1,100 there, against £450 to £850 elsewhere. [3]
- London and Slough, HaMuch: £39 an hour and £252 a day in London, and £44 an hour and £271 a day in Slough. [4]
- Glasgow, Bristol and Manchester, HaMuch: £33, £30 and £30 an hour. Day rates are £264, £235 and £219. [4]
- Birmingham and Leeds, HaMuch: £27 and £28 an hour, with day rates of £208 and £206. [4]
Job prices
What common plasterer jobs cost
What customers are typically quoted, from published UK price guides. Use them as a check on your own quotes, not a fixed price list.
| Job | Typical price | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Skim one small wall, up to 10m² | £150 to £300 [3] | Fantastic Services. £200 to £400 in London |
| Skim the walls of a small room | £400 to £600 [3] | Fantastic Services. £500 to £780 in London |
| Skim the walls of a large room | £600 to £850 [3] | Fantastic Services. £750 to £1,100 in London |
| Skim a room | £550 [4] | HaMuch average |
| Plaster a small room, 9m² | £1,100 [2] | Checkatrade average from a July 2024 table. A large room of 18m² is £1,900 |
| Skim a ceiling, average room | £250 to £450 [3] | Fantastic Services. £320 to £580 in London |
| Skim a medium ceiling, 15m² | £280 to £440 [5] | Checkatrade, average £360. A small ceiling is £200 to £350 and a large one £425 to £725 |
| Overboard and plaster a ceiling | £1,000 [5] | Checkatrade average. Around £700 for a box room |
| Re-plaster a chimney breast | £200 to £400 [3] | Fantastic Services. £250 to £520 in London |
| Plasterboard and skim a stud wall | £30 to £45 a m² [3] | Fantastic Services. £38 to £58 a m² in London |
| Patch repair | £120 to £250 [3][2] | Fantastic Services, small damaged area. Checkatrade gives £200 to repair a small crack |
| Fit coving | £85 [4] | HaMuch average |
| Render an external wall | £50 a m² [4] | HaMuch average |
Fantastic Services says its 2026 figures include VAT where applicable. Checkatrade’s room and ceiling prices come from 2024 tables read from archived copies of its guides, and its room prices are well above the other guides, so treat them as a top end. HaMuch figures are averages from its own trade database.
Your numbers
Work out your own hourly rate
Start from what you want to earn, add what the business costs to run, and divide by the hours you can actually charge for. Travel, quoting, paperwork and chasing payments are not chargeable hours, so be honest about them.
The starting numbers are examples, not a recommendation. Change them to match your year. The result is before income tax and National Insurance, and before VAT if you are registered.
Before you set a price
Costs your rate has to cover
- Public liability insurance: the cheapest 10% of Simply Business plasterer customers paid £69.70 or less a year for up to £2 million cover between October 2025 and March 2026. Its average plasterer claim in the last year was £2,507, across 14 claims. [6]
- Paying staff: the BATJIC rate for an Advanced Craft (NVQ3) worker is £16.76 an hour from 10 August 2026, and £13.12 for an adult General Operative. The FMB puts the full cost of employing an Advanced Craft worker at £22.15 for each hour worked, before overheads, materials or supervision. [7]
- CIS: contractors must deduct 20% from your payments if you are registered for CIS, or 30% if you are not. [8]
- VAT: registration becomes compulsory when your taxable turnover goes over £90,000 for the last 12 months. After that you add 20% to your prices. [9][10]
What the job pays elsewhere
- Employed plasterer pay: £21,000 as a starter rising to £38,000 with experience, on 40 to 45 hours a week, according to the National Careers Service. [11]
Pricing well
How to price your work as a plasterer
Quote by area, keep the day rate for the unknown
Customers can compare a price per m² or per room. Measure the walls and ceilings, say whether it is a skim or a full re-plaster, and quote the job. Keep your day rate for repair work where you cannot see what is behind the old plaster until it comes off.
Set a minimum charge
Mixing, setting up and cleaning take the same time for a small patch as for a full wall. Fantastic Services puts the usual minimum at £120 to £150. Tell callers your minimum before you book a small job, and suggest they save up other patches for the same visit.
Write down what preparation is included
Removing wallpaper, hacking off blown plaster, beading corners, boarding over Artex and taking the rubbish away all take time. List what your price covers and what costs extra, so a wall that turns out worse than expected does not come out of your margin.
Tell customers about drying time
Fantastic Services says a typical room takes one to two days including drying, and the plaster needs a few more days before it can be painted. Saying this at the quote stage stops a decorator turning up too early and the blame landing on you.
Know which guide your customer has read
Guide prices for a single room run from £450 to £850 at Fantastic Services up to £1,100 for a small room at Checkatrade. If a customer quotes a low figure back at you, ask whether it was for a skim or a full re-plaster, and walk them through what your price includes.
The work you never get to quote for
A good rate only helps if the customer reaches you. Most callers who hit voicemail ring the next name on the list. If you miss three calls a week and two in five would have become a £550 job, that is about £2,858 of work a month going to someone else. See what a missed call costs, or how While You Work answers calls for plasterers while you are on a job.
Questions
What plasterers ask about pricing
How much does a plasterer charge per day in the UK?
Checkatrade’s April 2026 table gives £300 a day, or £37.50 an hour. HaMuch’s national average is lower at £170 a day, from £120 to £400 depending on the area, though its city figures are higher, for example £252 in London and £219 in Manchester.
How much does it cost to skim a room?
Fantastic Services gives £400 to £600 to skim the walls of a small room and £600 to £850 for a large one, or £500 to £780 and £750 to £1,100 in London. HaMuch’s average to skim a room is £550.
How much does a plasterer charge per square metre?
Fantastic Services gives £15 to £25 a m² to skim a sound wall, £25 to £45 to re-plaster or board and skim, and £20 to £35 for a ceiling. Checkatrade gives £24 a m² to skim a wall.
How much does it cost to plaster a ceiling?
Fantastic Services gives £250 to £450 to skim an average ceiling, or £320 to £580 in London. Checkatrade gives £200 to £350 for a small ceiling, £280 to £440 for a medium one and £425 to £725 for a large one, and around £1,000 to overboard and plaster.
Do plasterers have a minimum charge?
Most do. Fantastic Services says the usual minimum is around £120 to £150, because setting up, mixing and cleaning take the same time on a small patch.
How much does a plasterer earn in the UK?
The National Careers Service gives £21,000 for a starter and up to £38,000 with experience for employed plasterers. Under BATJIC from 10 August 2026, an Advanced Craft (NVQ3) worker is paid at least £16.76 an hour.
Sources
Figures checked on 16 October 2026. Price guides change, so check the source before you rely on a figure. Where a source says whether a price includes VAT, the page says so; where it does not, treat the figure as unconfirmed on VAT.
- Checkatrade, How much do tradespeople cost in the UK in 2026?, Updated 04/26 (table: Last updated April 2026).
- Checkatrade, How much does it cost to plaster a room?, Last updated 22 November 2023 (table: Last updated July 2024).
- Fantastic Services, How much does plastering cost? [2026 UK price guide], 2026 guide.
- HaMuch, Plasterer rates near you for 2026, No date on page, headed 2026.
- Checkatrade, Cost of plastering a ceiling, Last updated 22 November 2023 (table: Last updated May 2024).
- Simply Business, Plasterers insurance, Snapshot 13 May 2026; price data 1 Oct 2025 to 31 Mar 2026.
- Federation of Master Builders (FMB), BATJIC wages and holidays 2026/2027 (BATJIC Information Sheet August 2026 to March 2027), 2026-08-05 (rates effective 10 August 2026).
- GOV.UK (HMRC), What you must do as a Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) subcontractor.
- GOV.UK (HMRC), How VAT works / When to register.
- GOV.UK (HMRC), VAT rates.
- National Careers Service (GOV.UK), Plasterer job profile.
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